Activist Nguyen Lan Thang, his wife and daughter attend a protest against the Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Group, whose factory caused the country’s worst-ever environmental disaster (Fb)
Hanoi People’s Court on Wednesday sentenced prominent political activist and blogger Nguyen Lan Thang to six years in prison and two years of probation.
Thang, a long-time contributor of blog posts on politics and society to RFA’s Vietnamese service, was arrested in July 2022 and charged with spreading anti-state propaganda.
His trial was the latest in a continuing crack down on dissenting voices in the one-party communist country.
He was accused of “making, storing, spreading or propagating anti-state information, documents, items and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” The charge against him came under Article 117 of Vietnam’s criminal code, which is often used by authorities to suppress free speech on social media.
Nguyen Lan Thang “has never done anything wrong to his family, country and his own conscience,” his parents told Radio Free Asia ahead of a trial that they were not allowed to attend.
Only his wife and defending lawyers were allowed inside the Hanoi court room on Wednesday. Thang originally feared the case would be held in camera and petitioned last month for an open trial.
The 48-year-old has written several articles on freedom, democracy and human rights on the RFA Vietnamese blog since late 2013. He has also taken part in protests defending Vietnam’s sovereignty in disputed areas of the South China Sea and worked to help people affected by floods and storms in the country’s Central Highlands.
In April 2022, he wrote for RFA about news reports that Russian ships had been turning off their locator systems to evade being tracked for illegal oil sales. He recalled that during the Iraq War, tycoons from a certain “socialist-oriented market economy” had repainted oil ships to buy sanctioned Iraqi oil at a discount and “became very very rich.”
Calls for Thang’s immediate release
Ahead of Wednesday’s verdict Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued statements calling on the Vietnamese government to drop the charges and immediately release Thang.
“For more than a decade, Nguyen Lan Thang has carried out crucial work documenting protests and human rights abuses in Vietnam despite a worsening climate of retribution aimed at those who criticize the state,” said Ming Yu Hah, the deputy regional director for campaigns at Amnesty International.
“His peaceful activism and reporting should be welcomed as part of legitimate public debate, but instead, he is facing years in prison.”
Thang’s wife, Le Bich Vuong, expressed her gratitude to the organizations for their statements.
“Facing the accusations, Mr. Nguyen Lan Thang has said that he only exercised a citizen’s freedom of expression, press freedom, and responsibilities for protecting national sovereignty, environment, and human rights and fighting against injustice in society,” she told RFA on Tuesday.
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April 12, 2023
Vietnam court sentences blogger Nguyen Lan Thang to 6 years in prison
by Defend the Defenders • [Human Rights]
Hanoi People’s Court on Wednesday sentenced prominent political activist and blogger Nguyen Lan Thang to six years in prison and two years of probation.
Thang, a long-time contributor of blog posts on politics and society to RFA’s Vietnamese service, was arrested in July 2022 and charged with spreading anti-state propaganda.
His trial was the latest in a continuing crack down on dissenting voices in the one-party communist country.
He was accused of “making, storing, spreading or propagating anti-state information, documents, items and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” The charge against him came under Article 117 of Vietnam’s criminal code, which is often used by authorities to suppress free speech on social media.
Nguyen Lan Thang “has never done anything wrong to his family, country and his own conscience,” his parents told Radio Free Asia ahead of a trial that they were not allowed to attend.
Only his wife and defending lawyers were allowed inside the Hanoi court room on Wednesday. Thang originally feared the case would be held in camera and petitioned last month for an open trial.
The 48-year-old has written several articles on freedom, democracy and human rights on the RFA Vietnamese blog since late 2013. He has also taken part in protests defending Vietnam’s sovereignty in disputed areas of the South China Sea and worked to help people affected by floods and storms in the country’s Central Highlands.
In April 2022, he wrote for RFA about news reports that Russian ships had been turning off their locator systems to evade being tracked for illegal oil sales. He recalled that during the Iraq War, tycoons from a certain “socialist-oriented market economy” had repainted oil ships to buy sanctioned Iraqi oil at a discount and “became very very rich.”
Calls for Thang’s immediate release
Ahead of Wednesday’s verdict Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued statements calling on the Vietnamese government to drop the charges and immediately release Thang.
“For more than a decade, Nguyen Lan Thang has carried out crucial work documenting protests and human rights abuses in Vietnam despite a worsening climate of retribution aimed at those who criticize the state,” said Ming Yu Hah, the deputy regional director for campaigns at Amnesty International.
“His peaceful activism and reporting should be welcomed as part of legitimate public debate, but instead, he is facing years in prison.”
Thang’s wife, Le Bich Vuong, expressed her gratitude to the organizations for their statements.
“Facing the accusations, Mr. Nguyen Lan Thang has said that he only exercised a citizen’s freedom of expression, press freedom, and responsibilities for protecting national sovereignty, environment, and human rights and fighting against injustice in society,” she told RFA on Tuesday.